Saturday, February 9, 2008

AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 9, 2008

Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,

First, welcome to our new members. We have passed the 400-member mark this week with 401 members in our group.

This week, I have no new news to report concerning our case. I anticipate that some action will be taken by later this month. I have calls in to the US Attorney in Indiana, and I hope to hear from him by next week for an update.

This week, I am asking you to help me get our case organized because I believe that we will see some results in the near future from all of our efforts. I have attached a profile sheet for each of you to fill out so I can compile the data for all of us, the government agencies who will be bringing charges against Carl Lau, and the media. All information will be kept confidential from the public unless I personally ask you individually to allow me to share it with an agency or news source. I would never compromise anyone's integrity by giving out information without your permission.

I am trying to pinpoint when the fraudulence started to escalate at Airleaf and who the employees were who knowingly participated in it. I am also trying to differentiate between the publishing services versus the promotional services. Some of you paid for books to be published by Airleaf, some of you paid for your own books to be promoted by Airleaf, and some people paid for publishing and promotion by Airleaf. From our 400 members, I want to get a significant sampling to make comparisons.

For example, I went to Airleaf to publish my book Straight Wives: Shattered Lives. I paid $1,895.00 for publishing, 50 copies, and placement in 15 book stores. That price also included a return policy so I could have books signings. My book was published quickly, and I did receive the 50 copies. However, my book copies did not show up to my first book signing (problems with the printer was the excuse), it never appeared in 15 bookstores (I checked), and when I requested a book signing to be set up in Southern California last summer, I was told that there were no bookstores interested in this in Southern California. Since my book was publicized on national news stories, I found this amazing. I also was promised quarterly royalties, but we all are familiar with that story.

In my early days with Airleaf while I was still in the "honeymoon phase," I bought a promotional package for a book I published through iUniverse called ManReaders: A Woman's Guide to Dysfunctional Men. I paid $350.00 to have the press release for the book sent to "important decision makers" in the television market. Of course, there were no responses, but as my Airleaf consultant told me, "Lots of interest." So in my case, I paid for publishing and promotion of an Airleaf book, and promotion of my own book published elsewhere. On the survey form, please check all of the services that you paid for.

Some of you may need reminders to jog your memories, so I have gone back to some of my old emails and looked at some of the promotions that were sent to me. These include:

You have until November 30, 2006 to save on selected bookselling services!

Reach 2000 bookstore owners for just $239.40! You save $160!

Reach 1000 Filmmakers for just 210! You save $140!

Reach 400 Traditional Publishers for just $270! You save $180!

Sell your book on 10 websites for $299.40! You save $200!

Reach 10,000 bookstore owners with our Maximum Impact Service which includes direct telephone calls to bookstores for just $990. You save $660!

SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!

While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful, nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service at our lowest price ever.

NEW BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB

While we have sold thousands of books to hundreds of book stores, we have never focused on selling books directly to individual readers--Until now! With Airleaf's new Book of the Month Club we will be tapping into this multi-billion dollar consumer market for the first time.Book clubs like Oprah Winfrey's and The Today Show's generate millions of dollars in book sales every month. We hope our book club will do the same.We have selected a few of our best titles for club members, but we believe the Book of the Month Club will benefit ALL Airleaf authors.Please take a look!

SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!

While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful, nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.

Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service at our lowest price ever.

And my personal favorite lure to author fame from 3/28/07

Is your book the next to appear on the big screen?

Check out www.airleaf.com to see the trailer for our first film, Jessie’s Girl.

We are making another trip to Hollywood in April to present all new books to all new Producers and Directors! We will present your book in face to face meetings for just $650.

So, hopefully some of these campaigns will help you remember which ones you bought. And for sure—they all sounded so, so good—and legitimate!

I would like to share two links with you today. One is from our friend Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, a website that gives excellent advice to writers and warms them about possible scams. I told Victoria that I am working on some helpful links to help our writers with their book promotions in a meaningful way. I believe that most POD companies that offer package deals are misleading and/or ineffective. All of us want our books to sell, but there are many things that we can do on our own for little or no money rather than pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to promoters.

Victoria welcomed me to share her link about services for writers, and I know you'll find some excellent ideas there.

Link to Writer Beware: Writers' Services

The second link I would like to share with you is the link to help find a literary agent. I have found this link to be extremely helpful when trying to find an agent. It was sent to me by an agent friend, and I have been using it to test it out. There is no cost for using this link, Agent Query. Some of you have written to me that you would like to go through a "traditional" publishing route, so here is the way to start.

Link to Agent Query:

AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher

Some words of advice when seeking a literary agent: Expect rejection and don't personalize it. I have gone through the traditional route twice. I have found two excellent agents, one who was able to sell my first book, and a second one who believed in my book but was unable to sell it. I sent out 60 targeted inquiry letters both times and only received three people who were interested the first time and two people interested the second time. And although I was able to sell my first book, there was a long turn-around time between throughout this journey. So if you are expecting a quick fix—forget it. Make sure that if you choose this route that you have a strong query letter done in the proper format. There are lots of websites that give great advice in how to prepare one, and I am always happy to look it over for you and give suggestions. Also keep in mind if you are lucky enough to find an agent, there is usually a back up time in publishing once they find a publisher of between 12 and 18 months.

Last week, I sent you to our Airleaf Victims blog site. If you looked there, you saw my books were listed on the right hand side and available on Amazon. If you are selling your books on Amazon, my blog-keeper will be glad to have your book or books listed on our Airleaf Victims site. Just drop me a note, and I'll tell you what I need.

Here is a link to the Airleaf Victims blog site so you can see my books listed:

Airleaf Victims

In the upcoming weeks, I will share some excellent ideas and links with you to help you with your book promotion. These links and ideas are mostly free ideas that you can do yourself.

Please remember to fill out your survey and get it back to me with any documentation you have. If you want to send it to me by mail, my home address is listed on the bottom of the form. In three weeks, I will take a few days off from my job so I can compile all of the information that you are sending in and give you the results. If you do not have a printer and you would like me to send you the form as an email, just let me know.